The Crew June 8th 1915

Brown and Huges on the Conning Tower

At 32 years, Lt. Commander Nasmith was a veteran submariner, his crew reckoned he had the best periscope eye in the "trade" (the nickname of the early submarine service). The Dardanelles patrols would demonstrate not only Nasmith's courage but also his talent for innovation and resourcefulness. Nasmith expected a lot of his crew but also himself. After a failed attack on a German battleship in 1914 he swore not to drink or smoke again until his first hit. Months later in Marmara, when Nasmith sent his first Turkish ship to the bottom, his crew presented Nasmith with beer and cigars. Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly Hughes, as second in command was responsible for ensuring the smooth running of ever aspect of the boat. At 29 years D'Oyly Hughes shared his Captain's adventurous spirit. Lieutenant Robert Brown was the Navigating Officer. Brown was a reservist from the Merchant Navy. Brown had famously been born on a sailing ship rounding Cape Horn. Popular with the crew Brown had a wry sense of humour evident in his patrol reports.

 

"Run Amuck In Marmara"

E11 Passes HMS Grampus to the chears of the Crew

To avoid the shore guns and minefields E11 dived to 80ft just as dawn broke on 20th May. the plan was to dive under the deadly minefields.

"Suddenly there was a metal clang forward. They listened in dead silence as a mooring wire scraped along the outside of the hull..... D'Oyly put his empty cocoa cup down on the wardroom table, very gently, as if the slightest additional vibration might explode the mine. The wire seemed to be caught up for an instant on one of the propeller guards and then was thrown clear".
From "Dardanelles Patrol"

E11 scraped herself past several more mine before getting clear of the field. By 9.30pm the long dive was nearly over. E11 had been down for 17 hours - oxygen levels were low and circulation fans were essential to stop the crew succumbing to carbon dioxide poisoning

Damage to E11's conning tower

Everything was foul:

"Mingling with the all pervading smell of oil there was a sour smell from the batteries and un-emptied sanitary buckets standing in rows behind the engines.....Grey mist rose from the bilges darkening the interior of the boat like London fog
From "Dardanelles Patrol"

Commodore Keys had told Nasmith to "go and run amuck in Marmara" and so he did. Fro the next three weeks E11 would scour the Marmara torpedoing large vessels and scuttling smaller craft. On the 25th May Nasmith took E11 into Constantinople harbour, and sank a large troop transport at her moorings. E11 was the first hostile warship to enter the harbour in 500 years! Apart from the practical value of disrupting supplies to the Turkish battle front, the daring attack had great propaganda value. During each of these three patrols Nasmith was innovative in so many ways. He successfully worked out how to suspend the submarine between layers of fresh and salt water. This meant he could hide for long periods under water without having to keep moving, his crew could rest and his batteries did not get exhausted. On the first patrol he hid the submarine for several hours behind a captured dhow. Later he ordered torpedoes to be set to float so that if he missed he might recover the "fish" to use again. Nasmith then personally dived into the water to retrieve and disarm the first torpedo recovered.

E11 Lashed to the side of a Turkish Dhow

The Return Journey

E11 Bridge

E11 had been on patrol for nearly three weeks when she again dived into the straits for the return journey, Nasmith feared the passage would be even more dangerous than the run up, the Turks would be looking for the British submarine that had done so much damage. Approximately an hour and a half after diving they heard a scrape against the hull and then the submarine started to behave strangely. Nasmith took her up 20ft and raised the periscope.

"the men were silent looking at him wondering what had happened....he couldn't possibly tell them what met his horrified gaze"
From "Dardanelles Patrol"

E11 had snagged a mine on her forward hydroplane and was dragging it along through the water. Nasmith said nothing to the crew and ordered E11 deeper. He went up in the conning tower and peered out through the tiny scuttles (windows).

"The water cleared as the mine was pulled under. It surged from side to side and swung down towards the conning tower. It was only ten feet away from the scuttle through which he was looking. He counted six horns sticking out of it"
From "Dardanelles Patrol"

The submarine dragged its lethal attachment right through the minefield. When Nasmith revealed their predicament to his men nearly two hours later it was to give a series of swift orders designed to dislodge the mine. Nasmith ordered full-a-stern, the mine and its cable slipped of the bows and plunged away beneath them. Minutes later E11's glistening hull surfaced into the sunshine of Cape Helles.

Nasmith crowded his men onto E11's conning tower to greet their escorting destroyer.

"cheers were still echoing of the cliffs at Helles, for it had spread like wild fire in the British lines about the fabulous E11 whose exploits had been read to troops in daily bulletins, had returned safely".

From "Dardanelles Patrol Epilogue"

The Turkish Steamship SS Bospherous sinking

The Campaign

The Gallipoli Campaign ended in failure. Allied troops had completely withdrawn by January 1916 having suffered over 30,000 casualties. The Turks had held the line but at a terrible cost with up to 200,000 casualties. The Royal Navy's inability to force the Dardanelles Straits with its battleships was clearly one of the causes of the expeditions failure. However, for the crew of E11 and the other British and Allied submarines who took their boats up the deadly straits of the Dardanelles had proved to be their finest hour. Their teamwork, skill and daring that were the hallmark of the "Trade", demonstrated that the German U-boats were not alone in having the power to terrorise the seas and the potential to strangle supply lines.

Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith

Lt Commander Nasmith in front of the conning tower

Promotion followed Nasmith's dramatic success in the Dardanelles. After the war he moved on to bigger things Commanding the 'Dreadnought' battleship HMS Iron Duke. In the intermediate war years he had important staff posts including Captain of the Royal College at Dartmouth, where he had the distinction of presenting his own son with the best cadet award. Most significantly he became the first submariner to reach the position of Rear Admiral responsible for submarines. In 1932 he received a knighthood and in World War II as Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar Nasmith he served as Commander-in-chief Western approaches. Thus the Submarine 'ace' of the Great War was charged with defeating the U-boat menace in the Atlantic.

Commander Nasmith

Read Admiral Dunbar-Nasmith (son of Martin Nasmith) & E11 Veterans, at the presentation of the ship's bell to HMS Dolphin

E11 was to return to Marmara for two more highly successful patrols. Nasmith finally sunk the Turkish battleship Hairedin Barabaross that had twice eluded him. Guy D'Oyly Hughes built another raft on the second patrol, carried a hair raising attack on the Baghdad railway. Over the course of the three patrols, May to December 1915, E11 destroyed 86 ships (67,302 tons in total). For E11's historic attack on Constantinople harbour Nasmith received the Victoria Cross and the entire crew the Distinguished Service Medal. After the British evacuation from the Gallipoli peninsular, E11 was engaged on Aegean patrols and later on the North African trade routes. One of her last duties was to sail to Sevastapol (in the Crimea) to accept U-boat surrenders. The boat survived the war and was eventually paid off in Malta in 1919.